News

Jason Johnson, TVG and the Rock Star Amongst Classic Entires

Author : Premier Speedway Media

The 2018 South West Conveyancing Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic looks set to welcome 2016 Knoxville Nationals Champion Jason Johnson back to Sungold Stadium along with a posse of hot shot Aussie including Tim Van Ginneken and Danny Reidy.

For the second successive summer Jason Johnson will team up with Stephen Stathy and the potent Diamond Bay Motorsports team for his assault on the major Australian meetings.

Having combined to finished 18th in the 2017 Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic, Johnson will return to our shores aiming to not only improve on that result, but threaten for the crown of Classic Champion.

The native of Eunice, Louisiana, again competed on the tough World of Outlaws Tour throughout 2017, recording four feature race wins enroute to an overall sixth place finish in the driver points.

Johnson’s defense of his Nationals Crown, saw him endure a tough week which began with a typically consistent qualifying effort (9th quick), before he managed to progress from a starting spot of seventh to make the transfer with a fourth place run in his heat.

From there, things took a turn for the worse after contact between Johnson and Dominic Scelzi resulted in front end damage to Johnson’s car, which would eventually see him scored as 24th in his qualifying night A-Main.

This resulted in Johnson being relegated to the Friday Night School of Hard Knocks program, which saw him dominate the nights proceedings, setting quick time in his qualifying group, before winning his heat ahead of Tim Kaeding, Cole Duncan and Kevin Thomas Jnr.

This saw him start the A-Main from the front row and saw Johnson win the event to lock in a 17th starting spot in the Nationals Final.

Johnson, however wasn’t done there as he also stormed to a win in the Speed Sport World Challenge to cap off a memorable Friday night for Jason and his team.

The Saturday night Knoxville Nationals finale, as won by Donny Schatz, saw the defending champ progress from 17th to 11th at the fall of the chequered flag.

Being no stranger to the Classic and with an awesome Maxim Chassis, Maxwill power-plant combination at his disposal for the Classic, is 2018 going to be the year that Jason Johnson rights some wrongs and adds his name to the Classic honor roll?

Despite Premier Speedway being his home track, Tim Van Ginneken has certainly not been leg-roped to Warrnambool as far as his racing is concerned, with TVG now boasting two Western Australian and one Northern Territory Sprintcar Titles upon his resume.

Having pledged to contest as many World Series Sprintcars rounds as he can in 2017-18, Van Ginneken will be at the top of his game come the Classic as he aims to improve on last years result which saw his campaign essentially end on his qualifying night.

For 2018, Van Ginneken will again be at the wheel of the V36 for legendary local car owner Harry Droste, with support from Lowe’s Auto Repairs, South West Conveyancing, VG Build, Anderson Bob Cat Service, Rafferty’s Tavern and Lethal Race Wings.

Popular racer Danny Reidy will also return to Warrnambool to contest the Classic having been extremely competitive over his past couple of visits to the event. In 2017 Reidy finished 12th in B-Main 2.

For his 2018 campaign, the Rock Star, will be aboard his familiar NQ5 entry with support coming from Eagle Ignition Leads, Desert Palms Resort, Alice Springs and Inglis Race Engines.

Joining the list of entrants for the 2018 South West Conveyancing Classic will also be Daniel Sayre aboard the Aussie Forklift repairs, Endeavour Liquid waste and Atlantic Oils back N16 entry.

Sayre was unlucky to miss a transfer into the Classic final in 2016, having finished an impressive 5th in B-Main 2, while West Australian based Classic rookie Brodie Minchin will make his first appearance aboard the W22 GF1, with some fantastic support coming his way via JA Civil Resources, Wesfil, Penrite Oil, Powercrank Batteries, Hadley Earthworks, Ridgeback Boltong, KGS Auto Electrical, Fergy’s Mechanical, Lane Metals Pty Ltd, Auto 1 Margaret river, Sponsorship & Consulting Services, Matrix Towing and Margaret River Sign Co.

The 2018 46th edition of the South West Conveyancing Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic will be supported by the following sponsors; Performance Racegear, KRE Race Engines, The Lady Bay Resort and KFC.

Copies of the 2018 South West Conveyancing Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic entry form have been forwarded to the 2017 entrants while a PDF version is available for download from the Premier Speedway website www.premierspeedway.com.au